Phonetic Families & Components

Sound Roots & Semantic Radicals Explorer

Decode Chinese characters by their shared sound roots and see how semantic radicals split their meanings across tones.

Popular Roots:

离

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)HSK 2

离 (chī)

mythical beast

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Family Characters

HSK Words

Tone Fan-out (离)

How this root's pronunciation drifts across the Mandarin tone spectrum:

3 Active Tones

Tone 1chī

Tone 2lí

Tone 5

Family Characters (12)

Root: 离

离

chī

HSK 2

Phonetic Root (声旁 / Sound Core)

mythical beast

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璃

lí

HSK 5

王(jade)

(phonetic character used in transliteration of foreign names); Taiwan pr. [li4]

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樆

chī

Expansion

木(tree)

manjack or cordia (genus Cordia)

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漓

lí

Expansion

氵(water)

pattering (of rain); seep through

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篱

lí

Expansion

⺮(bamboo)

a fence

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缡

lí

Expansion

纟(silk)

bridal veil or kerchief

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縭

Expansion

糹(silk)

—

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蓠

lí

Expansion

艹(plants)

red algae; Gracilaria, several species, some edible

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螭

chī

Expansion

虫(insect)

dragon with horns not yet grown (in myth or heraldry); variant of 魑[chi1]

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褵

lí

Expansion

衤(clothes)

bride's veil or kerchief

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離

Expansion

隹(short-tailed bird)

—

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魑

chī

Expansion

鬼(ghost)

used in 魑魅[chi1 mei4]

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